TwentyNine
by Madame President
Summary: Twenty-Nine did not suit him. Royed, angst one shot drabble, character death. Jean Havoc as the main character.


Disclaimer; if I owned fma, the plot would be roy, sleeping with the entire male cast. Sadly for the yaoi fangirls, I don't.

Title: Twenty-Nine

Rating: pg13

Pairing: royed, implied one sided jeanroy

Word count: 1233

Summary: Twenty-Nine did not suit him. Royed, angst one shot drabble, character death. Jean Havoc as the main character.

Author's Note: well I'm giving yet another bishie aids. I really have a fixation, don't I? Well, enjoy.

**Twenty-Nine**

Edward Elric was 29 and he had AIDS. His lover did not. Edward was in the hospital, and he would leave in a body bag. He knew that, and so did the man caring of him. Ed didn't walk any more, as infections had ruined the muscles of his legs and he could hardly say more than three words in a row with out taking a breath.

The doctors said he had two months tops, but he doubted even that. His lover hardly left his side during the time he had been there, which was about five months.

The people whom Edward had known and loved were visiting him for what most assumed would be the last time. To day was Jean Havoc.

Infection had destroyed Edward's kidneys as well. In fact, when Jean came to visit, Ed wasn't even there at first because he was in the dialysis wing. Room 509 was empty except for a once immaculate black trench coat and a messy pile of books and papers. Then Roy arrived.

"I'm sorry, I was in the bathroom. He's in dialysis, he'll be back soon though," he explained quickly, the sides of his mouth pulled into a tight unconvincing smile.

"The nurse told me," Jean muttered, looking down at his feet. A moment of awkward silence followed jeans words.

"Please come in, sit down," Roy said, gesturing to the couch and chairs that sat around the space where there should have been a bed. A tray of untouched breakfast was placed by the door.

"So they just wheel him to, um…" he trailed off.

"Yes," Roy responded in a clipped tone. "He doesn't walk any where he just…" Roy took a breath and bit his lip "he just sits"

"Oh,"

"So how's you niece?" Roy asked disinterestedly.

"Hunh?" Jean was jerked from his thoughts "oh, she's good, she sent these for Ed, actually" he held out a plastic bag, bearing the phrase "have a nice day"

Roy opened it

"Paper cranes, supposed to be good luck or health or something," Jean elaborated with a nervous laugh.

"Thank you," Roy murmured softly "he'll like them" another silence, this one sad.

It was broken by the squeaking of wheels in tile. The men looked up.

At first Jean couldn't see Ed underneath the blankets. The he caught a glimpse.

He wished he hadn't. His leg (the auto mail had been removed) was poking up through the blanket in suck a way that only the knee was visible because it was so much higher than the rest of the bone. The was nothing else. His face and thin chest were covered in horrible purple legions of skin cancer. His bright gold hair hung limp around a drawn skeletal face that looked nothing like the Ed of even a year ago.

Jean had known Edward for years. He could never forget the bratty 12 year old that would storm into Colonel Mustang's office unannounced. He could see Ed at sixteen fighting for his life, Ed at twenty and in love and Ed at twenty-six, coughing when he laughed too hard. Twenty-nine didn't suit Ed. There was something integral missing form the equation. It wasn't the hard muscles or the sarcastic quips. It was the will to live.

Roy swooped in immediately. Jean only caught a few words of what the men were saying.

"Edo, Jean is here to see you"

"That's…"

"…Dialysis…"

"Fine…"

"Of course…" Roy stood and hit the intercom above Ed's bed.

"We need assistance in room 509, please"

"Hey there chief," said Havoc, his face arranged into what he hoped was an amicable and non-disgusted look.

"Hello jean" Ed whispered, then drew a shuddering breath "it's nice to" wheeze "see you."

"You to chief," he lied. "Figured it's been a while, you know, wanted to stop by and say hello"

"You've always been," wheeze "a shitty liar," Ed said with a dry laugh that turned into a hacking cough.

"Ed, look what Jean brought, from his niece, paper cranes," Roy quickly intervened. It was nice to hear Ed still causing trouble for Roy and offending the mans sensibilities.

"They're pretty tell her" wheeze "thanks"

"No problem" Jean drawled, reluctantly looking at Edwards distorted face and those dull amber eyes. There was another awkward silence, which was broken by Roy braking into the intercom

"We need assistance in room 509, now!"

"Oh, this is ridiculous," he snapped, shooing Jean out of the room and slamming the door.

He waited there incommodiously, until Roy stormed out, carrying a clear plastic bag containing a soiled diaper. Jean watched him go in wonder. Never in his thirty-eight years had he thought Roy mustang would ever change a diaper. Never in his thirty-eight years had he thought that Edward Elric would consent to wear one.

Feeling somewhat ill, he watched Roy yelling a nurse, whom tried and failed to hit on him until she was in tears. Then man came striding back down the hall looking the military General he had been until he lost his eye, rather than the frightened spouse of a dying man.

"You can come back in," he said gruffly "but I suggest that you leave soon because, he needs his sleep."

When Havoc entered, Ed was staring blankly up at the ceiling. It took him several moments to notice them.

"Roy," Edward croaked

"Yes" the man replied, swooping over. The spell was broken. He was the anxious spouse again.

Ed spoke in his ear

"Thanks for coming" gasp "Jean"

"I'll show him out, okay, Edo?" Roy said too kindly

"See you soon" Ed replied with a painful looking smile.

"Good bye, Ed" jean said, as though he'd see him the next day at work. He'd have hugged him, but it would make it seem as final as it actually was, and he knew that the bacteria on this hand that were nothing to him would kill Ed even faster.

He and Roy strode down the hall in silence and remained so as they rode down to the lobby in the dark wood elevator with its flowery ceilings.

It wasn't until they were about three meters form the door that they stopped.

"Well, I'll see you as soon as possible," said Jean.

"Yeah," Roy replied.

The watched each other, considering, until Roy threw his arms around Jean.

Jean inhaled picking up smoke, wood and whiskey as well as something entirely Roy and overwhelmingly male. Age had done nothing to decrease the mans attractiveness, and for a second jean held him, and imagined what it would be like if he and Roy were in love, as opposed to Roy and the ailing man upstairs. The moment passed and Mustang let go.

"Yeah, see you soon, send your niece my regard,"

"Will do boss, you know she has a soft spot for you," he teased both knowing he was just improvising to lighten the mood,

"Yeah, well then, good bye,"

"Good bye, Roy"

"Humph,"

Jean strode out the doors and into the subway*. Half an hour later, he turned the key to the apartment that he had been sharing with a thirteen-year-old girl since his sister had died.

"Hiya, Uncle Jean, how where they?" she asked in an oddly innocent tone for a teenager.

Jean didn't reply, he just sighed and hugged her.

"Oh," she said, and hugged him back.

Edward Elric died that night.

Author's note: well it's done! Pretty, pretty, pretty please review!

* I live in new york, and we call our train the sub way, so if you didn't get it , that's what it is.


End file.
